Jimbo 88

19 hours ago, Ronman said:

I've been a software developer for 30 years so I'm very aware of the need for backup.  That being said, in the DAW world it's true I've gotten lazy about backups in the rush to finish an arrangement, which, as you know, is a never-ending quest.

Forgive my post, looks like you answered before I deleted it...I misread your post

On 1/21/2022 at 10:32 AM, DeeringAmps said:

I'd bring the acoustic guitar up a bit; think the vocal is fine.
 

You guys are good...OK the acoustic guitar is low because the bass player was playing the guitar and the performance was a little to be desired.  The normal guitar player I have was busy.  I'm a gonna try to get away with it as is.

On 1/21/2022 at 10:32 AM, DeeringAmps said:

On 1/22/2022 at 7:56 AM, Wookiee said:

As noted by T the Kick is a bit pronounced, it also sounds a little lifeless to be more like a box than a drum, it has no ring.

The rest of the mix sounds reasonable here on he Adam's, though it does sound a like nothing is really panned even stereo instrument's can be panned to give a better soundstage.

 

The kick is actually me banging my foot on a box, a wood box under my keyboard designed to keep my damper pedal in place and other gear...nice ears.  I'm going to tweak that and look at your panning suggestions.

I'm gonna remix based on your guys suggestions.  THANKS!!!!

10 hours ago, Ronman said:

Doesn't using ripple edit in this way destroy the original full-length version, as you said by cutting automation, if not other things.  I need the full version as-is, plus extracted from various parts shorter versions as well.  For example, a 15 sec cutdown might consist of 5 secs. from three different spots that fit together musically but are not contiguous in the full-length version, plus an automated reverb in the last fraction of a second to make the end not sound abrupt.

I have to admit sometimes this is an issue, so sometimes I have to add  a tempo(copy the last) node or automation on the reverb at the point of the cut.

10 hours ago, Ronman said:

Doesn't using ripple edit in this way destroy the original full-length version, as you said by cutting automation, if not other things.  I need the full version as-is, plus extracted from various parts shorter versions as well.  For example, a 15 sec cutdown might consist of 5 secs. from three different spots that fit together musically but are not contiguous in the full-length version, plus an automated reverb in the last fraction of a second to make the end not sound abrupt.

Yes, so the very simple solution is to "save as" another file.  Have CbB versions of both. 

My advice to anyone working in any DAW is to save multiple versions of any project you are working on.  You have no idea when a file is going to become corrupt. Whether or not you are creating different versions. I only mention this because it sounds like you are not familiar with this concept and It is not a matter of will it happen, but when...in any DAW.

I modified this song from a Children's choir piece.  It's a song about graduation...

I'm going to echo what everyone said...great track!  I want to say less verb and raise the vocal also, but the more I listen I'm not sure you change anything.  Check it out and try it, but maybe it's good where everything sits as is.  I'm getting jealous of all the cool tracks on this forum.

Cake is great for this type of project...at least it is for me.  The ripple edit makes this easy.  The only issue i have had in the past doing this sort of thing is Tempo and other automation getting cut.  Like a volume will off because it was programed in the middle of what was just cut.  So keep that and mind and most of the time you can cut things down very quickly.  A feature I rarely hear about, but I use all the time is "Fit to Time".

Good luck!

On 1/13/2022 at 5:10 PM, DeeringAmps said:

I am liking the bass especially! Care to share?
Tasty guitar licks, fine vocal; what's not to like?

Who is the female voice?

 

Hey, Thanks for all the great comments (everyone).   I would have responded earlier, but Covid seems to striking all around me.  Not me personally, but all around me, including some of the people on this recording. Thankfully nothing too serious.

The bass player is a young guy who goes by the name: DubbyMac.  He went to school with my children and is a Berkeley School grad...

https://dubbymac.com/

The girl singer is my daughter, who was given the instruction to sing/mult with the crowd.   Thank God she never listens to me .

The Geetar player is an OLD friend of mine.  You can hear him on lots of recordings including "Halo" the game. Harry Hmura.

Rain on Us!

So a major hangup for me in Studio One is notation.  They just implemented it...but you can't print?

Really cool...I always felt, not in just this piece, but when i listen to any Irish music, that the individual instruments sound so cool and could benefit from allowing them to play solo for a little.  Adds more drama by adding and subtracting instruments.  Also I love when Irish instruments are allowed to go "free-time"

More Please!!

The last song I posted some thought was a little muddy.  So this new song I mastered it at Bandlab.  The mastering brightened everything up, add some compression making it a little louder. It did add a little noise on the intro.  Bandlab mastering has probably been discussed on the forums, but I've not read thru any of it.(forgive me)

Written 99% by a friend of mine,  I love playing this song in front of a live audience.  It's a blast!!!

Ok, Now I think I was pretty much right the 1st time.  So I have 2 versions of a song, one at 112 BPM sung by a choir.  Another at 104 BPM sung and performed by a vocalist and rock band.  Kinda always felt the 104 BPM was a little slow and the 112 was too fast after listening to them back to back.  So I mucked around and got the choir version to playback at 107 Bpm..fine.  I'm running into a bunch of artifacts and issues trying to speed up the slower rock band version.  This confirms my suspicions...It's dodgy in any DAW changing speeds.  It's not a guarantee  to work every time.

Ok I might have not understood, or misspoke, or just spoke from 5 years back.  I had in my head you where trying to change tempos within a song and had trouble. You can change tempos for complete songs in other DAWs, even if there are audio clips.  I just did it in Cubase, it took a little trickery.  I got little pieces of info from different sources and make it work.   Let me see if I can find a way to do this in Cake.  I have not had a reason to this, but I want to try.

I do love this forum.  Now, to go to work on the mixing.  I have to get into  "De-mudding" my mixes.   That's all on me.

Thanks everyone.

Hey Jerry,

Just listen to this again and had a thought. You might try adding another string library that has some "wonkyness" or character to your long strings.  The short strings and woodwinds sound perfect, not sure how you can improve on that.  Your long strings can sound "too perfect" especially when they are in octaves.  I would suggest not changing anything you do, but add something like Spitfire Audio's strings to your 1st Violins (or all your strings) at the end stage mixing process.  They have some built in tuning  and articulation issues that can sound cool at times.  You probably could pick up what you need for free from them.

I hesitate to make any suggestions because your compositions are just soooo great.

Best!

Thanks guys, my strong suit is definitely not music mixing. When there are a lot of elements I have to learn how to give each it's own sonic space.  That would solved the muffled or muddy problem.

Thanks for the feedback.

Really cool!  Love it! You amaze me by how prolific you are.  I really love the synth rhythms behind the orch.

What woodwinds are you using?  VSL?

I can't believe... how many good songs are on this forum.  Reminds me a little of Lennon or maybe George Harrison in the Traveling Wilbury's.

NICE!

Having fun in my basement studio...

Hey just as a test, try switching the metronome from "use audio metronome" to "use MIDI note".

It might give a clue to what is up...

I have a very similar story to the OP (and others in this thread) and when Cake and Gibson went down I headed over to Cubase.  There are things in Cubase that are really great, I can't live without at this point, but Cake and the bakers are really stepping up.  I spend more time in notation software these days.  I picked up Dorico in the hopes it will be integrated with Cubase. 

But I still start every project in Cakewalk.  Composing in Cake is the best. The occasional audio editing/mixing projects I do in Cake.   I tried Studio One and I'm not sure what the advantages are.  Anyways, my point is, I stepped away from CbB and into other DAWs, but I come back and spend tons of time on CbB...and it feels good.    

The way I have done forever, probably outdated now...go to Preferences>File>Advanced and un-click "allow only one project at a time".  Open both projects and copy the tracks you'd like into the target file.  I have 2 monitors so I'd stretch CbB to fill both and have each file on it's own monitor just to keep things straight.  I have always had heavy virtual instruments with tons of ram, so just to make this easier I would open the files in "safe" mode.

So I was trying to purge junk out of my basement a week back and found a box of high quality, unopened cassette tapes.  Did not know what to do with them.  Guess I can put them up on eBay.

If i remember correctly (it has been many, many years) analogue tape gets sticky if it sits too long.  Gums up pinch rollers.  Why anyone wants to go back to that is crazy pants to me.

I have a system that helps me compose.  You have to realize 1st that music is a form of story telling.  Even if you are not using lyrics and doing an instrumental, you really are just basically telling a story... or describing an emotion...or a feeling.  The difference between amateurs and pros is the ability to tell a story in their music.

1.  What story/emotion are you trying to tell or portray ?  Mentally outline how that works.  Are you starting small and going big?  What is your arc?

2.  Pick a scale that describes that emotion.   Note that the 1/2 steps in the scale give away the emotional sound of that scale.  Example:  If you want to sound "Happy" right off the bat, you are probably going to use a major scale and jump on the 3rd to the 4th.  You might not want to sound happy right away so stay away from those two notes until you do.

3.  You want to mix up intervals, but realize that small intervals sound intimate and bigger intervals are heroic or more powerful.

So you start with these kind of concepts using math and theory to get started. Then let your ear and imagination take over.  It is a lot like cooking, adding spices to tell your story.   If you can't hear the melody, you just haven't thought of your story.  Start with that.  The rest will follow.